Manoy Ramon (R.A. Ibarbia) maintained that English (or studying in it) “is not needed in order for us to understand science and math or music; to know hard work, honesty, GMRC, or straight thinking (BM, July 27).” He would rather have the students learn using the “native tongue” than be taught in a “foreign language.” Good point, bordering on a sense of country or nationalism that is Greek to most Filipinos. I like that.

      But would teaching our children in Pilipino or any language “they understood” guarantee better learning (in academic subjects that use textbooks largely in English) or performance (in international achievement tests)? Leave “Japan, Korea, Finland, Sweden and Hungary” alone. These countries may have resisted the evils of colonization or globalization (successfully enough to have kept their textbooks printed in their “own” tongue or their thinking “nationalistic”?) and the lures of corruption (well enough for their governments to provide ideal school facilities, error-free textbooks and well-trained, well-motivated teachers?). But, in a place where the love of country could be as good as the love for anything “dollar”, I doubt.

      The facts are bad, at least as pointed out by the Bicol Mail in its July 13 editorial: “…an alarming number of students about to enter Philippine universities lacked a basic mastery of key subjects, while those entering high school fared only marginally better.” And, “barely any fourth year student or sixth grader achieved the 75 percent ‘mastery’ benchmark for Mathematics, Science, Filipino and English languages, and Social Studies.” And blame is being pointed in all directions. But the fact remains: the education our children are getting is growing worse - and much worse as nobody seems to have really cared!

      Why this almost irreversible down-spiral trend in the quality of Philippine education? Is it because our children are being taught in a “foreign tongue”? Or, it is due to their inability (or being poorly trained) to learn or use the English language effectively contrary to what the older-generation students who, like Manoy Ramon, were “fortunate to have had good teachers,” had achieved. Our parents’ generation was awashed with tales of “good teachers” who had finished elementary “grade 7” only, yet could teach people in “good” English, enough to have raised professionals and politicians a lot better than the present crop of morons, crooks and clowns. And to think that during those times when English was mainly used in our schools, dishonesty, cheating, arrogance, and corruption were not as prevalent, if endemic, as they have become in this day and age. Gone were the days when our country could boast of having one of the highest literacy rates in Asia. Filipinos used to think of themselves as “better than their Asian neighbors” when it comes to speaking or writing better English.

      Not true anymore. As the Philippines Free Press, April 29, 2006, reported: “After the 1960’s, education in the Philippines began to deteriorate, worsening in the 1970s and reaching the nadir where it is today. In the 1960s, Filipino high-school graduates can hardly speak English. In contrast, Indonesians, Thais, and Sri Lankans are getting better in English, fast edging out Filipinos in the race for overseas jobs.”

      And why this state of affairs? The same magazine pointed out: “The return to Pilipino as medium of instruction in schools is to blame for this…” Moreover, “the domination of free TV by barbarian entertainment, especially by the so-called noontime shows and prime-time comedies, is to blame for the Filipinos’ loss of their English tongue.”

      True enough. The fact is English, or its “uncorrupted” version, has not been taught adequately in our schools ever since our curricula began to undergo a series of half-baked, inconsistent, whimsical “experimentations” cooked up and imposed by over-zealous “educators” and “politicos.”

      Let’s face it. Today even college professors can hardly speak or write straight English. Proof? Go and visit the classrooms, campuses or elsewhere. Save for some exceptions, discover for yourself who’s speaking or writing in “good” English. Not the classroom teacher. Not the principal. Not the sir or ma’am, with or without MAs or Phds, hard-earned or otherwise. Not the student. Not most Filipino journalists, including TV news writers and readers. Not the public officials. (Not even this “writer” who had to quit teaching Math in high school and make use of whatever English he had “learned”, courtesy of public education, in dealing with his foreign employers in Mindanao and in the Middle East for decades way back from the murder of democracy – along with the Philippine peso - at the height of Martial Law.)

      It’s obvious (at least to me) that the key to effective learning is actually not the language being used or taught in schools, but “good teaching”.

      But, how in the world could we have “good teaching” without “good teachers”? How could we have “good teachers” without “good administrators”? And how could we have “good education” without “good government”?